Learning to Laugh and Roar: Unleashing Durga Shakti Energy

Every year, around October, the goddess Durga, or Maa Durga as she is referred to, arrives on Earth, and for the next nine nights, Navaratri is celebrated. This is a time for prayer, meditation, self-reflection, fasting and good deeds for many Hindus all over the world. I remember being in Kolkata as a young girl during this period, and the streets were always glittered with lights, filled with people going to what is referred to as their neighbourhood Pandal. A Pandal is a large temple-like hall that is built every year to depict the Goddess Durga defeating the demon Mahisura. These halls are a showcase of artistry and even have the UNESCO intangible heritage tag.            

Back then, I didn’t know anything about Shakti energy, but I bore witness to the reverence that everyone in Kolkata had for the fierce, beautiful goddess with ten arms, ten weapons and unshakable strength. Durga is Shakti, Shakti is Durga. I grew up with images of this woman overpowering a man who represented darkness, fear and the ego. Ironically, I was raised to be the opposite of Durga. I was told to be an obedient, silent good girl. Only now do I understand the extent of the damage that has been done to me and many young girls and women who are told to be good and never taught how to tap into their Shakti energy.

Durga is a Sanskrit word that means impassable, invincible. The earliest evidence of Shakti or Devi worship has been found in what was once the Indus Valley civilization around 9,000 and 8,000 BCE, and the oldest surviving text that formally discusses Goddess worship is the Rig Veda, a Sanskrit text composed around 1,500 to 1,000 BCE. In it, the Divine Feminine, Devi Durga, is described as the ultimate source of creation (Devi Suktam: 125th hymn, 10th mandala).

The Goddess Saraswati (Goddess of wisdom and the arts) is another Devi, or Goddess. She is often portrayed as a daughter of Durga during the Durga Puja celebrations. 

It would take several more years until the story of the creation of Durga would be written down in the Devi Mahatmya (also known as Durga Shaptashi), composed in the 5th and 6th centuries. This text is as important as the Bhagavad Gita for many who practice Shaktism.

In the Devi Mahatmya, the Gods have been expelled from the heavens after losing the war to the evil Mahisa. Mahisa represents all that is dark within us—our fear, anger, ego. After their defeat, the Gods come together to discuss a plan of what to do next. This is when they decide to work together to create Durga.

2.13 Unequaled light, born from the bodies of all the gods, coalesced into a female form and pervaded the three worlds with its splendor.

Durga embodies the energy of all the Gods combined, and is thus more powerful than any of them individually. After creating Durga in female form, the gods all gave her their weapons, hence all of her arms.

2.20 Then the gods bestowed on Her their own weapons and adornments. From his trident Śiva drew forth another and gave it to Her.

Once she was armed and ready, she began to come to terms with her own power.

2.32 Honored also by the other gods with adornments and weapons, the Devī laughed thunderously and defiantly again and again.

2.33 She filled the entire sky with Her terrible roar, and from the immeasurable din a great echo resounded.

Were you, as a girl, ever encouraged to laugh and roar, and revel in your own power?

The story then continues with Durga descending down to Earth to battle Mahisa and his army. She tore through his army and began to chase him. He transformed into a buffalo, and Durga unleashed her lion to go after it. The demon kept coming in and out of its buffalo form. Eventually, he came out as a man, and Durga killed him.  

If Durga, the divine feminine represents the one who is able to destroy all that haunts and destroys us, then why are we so discouraged and afraid to embody our Shakti energy? It is easy to go to a temple and say a prayer to Durga, to ask for her protection. It is much harder to then allow her energy to come through you. I wanted to present these parts of the text because I think it’s important to read that before she went into battle, she did not coyly smile and flutter her eyelashes. She roared and laughed out loud. That is where I believe the true Shakti energy resides.

Works Cited

Devi Mahatmya

https://devimahatmya.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEVI-MAHATMYA-FULL.pdf

Rig Veda, tr. by Ralph T.H. Griffith, [1896], at sacred-texts.com

https://sacred-texts.com/hin/rigveda/rv10125.htm

Swami Vivekananda

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_5/Epistles_-_First_Series/VI_Haripada